Kolkata: The Kolkata Police has made extensive arrangements for the Trinamool Congress protest rally that will be led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee and attended by the top leadership, including Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, on Wednesday. It has been organised to protest the illegal detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers across BJP-ruled states, claimed Trinamool.
While the entire route — College Street, Nirmal Chandra Street, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road, SN Banerjee Road and Dorina Crossing — will have security cover, traffic on these roads will be "diverted on a need basis".
Even as the main rally will begin around 1 pm, Trinamool workers may start reaching College Street as early as 11 am. Cops said all vehicles on this road will be diverted via CR Avenue or APC Road.
"Once the rally begins, we will be shutting traffic on the route and the periphery. This route is best avoided from noon till early evening. The tertiary roads will be affected too, and it will not be till 4 pm that we can normalise traffic completely around Esplanade. However, we will try to keep Lenin Sarani open. There will be a sizeable deployment on APC route to ensure smoother traffic," said an officer at Lalbazar.
Police commissioner Manoj Verma and senior officers took stock of security in the area on Tuesday. "There will be deployment on rooftops, and additional CCTVs will be set up," said an officer, adding senior officers will man the control room. "We are treating this as a dress rehearsal for the Shahid Diwas rally on July 21," stated a senior officer.